The Indian Railways has lost around 60,000 square metre of prime land in Delhi, mostly along the railway tracks crisscrossing the Capital.
Around 47,000 jhuggies, most of which have been turned into pucca settlements, have mushroomed over these encroached lands.
These are a major impediment to safe train operations, besides being a principal contributor to the rising heap of garbage along the tracks – a grim view of which has been taken up by the National Green Tribunal.
Having jolted by the directions from the NGT, senior railway officials led by Northern Railway General Manager A.K.Puthia on Thursday inspected some of the worst-affected areas – both in terms of encroachments and lack of cleanliness. A media contingent was also taken along to show the ground situation.
While top officials said the departments concerned take action periodically to raze illegal constructions, one could see fresh encroachments coming up at some places even on Thursday on the route chosen for inspection - New Delhi-Azadpur-Daya Basti.
The responsibility of checking encroachments lies with the section engineers, but the authorities failed to give a clear answer to whether any departmental action had been taken against these officials for having failed to check these.
“It has been our constant endeavour to check encroachments on railway land. Also actions have been taken in the past to rehabilitate them as per the law of the land. Encroachments closer to the land pose risk to rail safety besides affecting the punctuality of trains. The NGT order has come as a big help and we perceive it as an opportunity to set things right,” said A.K.Puthia, General Manager, Northern Railway.
The route chosen for inspection is one of the most important lines on the Indian Railways network with several mail and express trains operating on it, including Rajdhani and Shatabdis, bound for different locations across North India.
Speed restricted
The rail tracks on the route are approved for running trains at a speed of 110 km/hr, but the authorities have been forced to restrict the speed to 50 km/hr as the encroachments have come as close as to less than a metre to the tracks.
The safety zone extends up to 15 metres from the outermost track on either side. Of the 47,000 jhuggies on the railway land in Delhi, about 24,500 jhuggies lie in the safety zone, officials said.
Authorities have failed to give a clear answer to whether any departmental action had been taken against officials for having failed to check the encroachments
